This is what it takes to clean up your mess ……Virat Singh
WR has initiated a massive drive to keep our coaches stain and sticker-free. But it takes barely a week for us to reclaim them with our paan, gutkha and sticky posters
WR has initiated a massive drive to keep our coaches stain and sticker-free. But it takes barely a week for us to reclaim them with our paan, gutkha and sticky posters
Next time you feel good after spitting out that mouthful of gutkha while hanging on to the doors of a local train, consider this. It takes 127 men working eight hours, using 500 litres of water and 12 litres of cleaners and fresheners every day to keep your coaches clean. Worse, it takes Rs 20 lakh of the taxpayer’s money every month to maintain them.
But paan and gutkha stains are not the only eyesores. Illegal stickers, handbills and posters peddling everything from guaranteed jobs to exotic sex take as much as time and effort to be removed. In a month since Western Railways introduced mechanised cleaning of local trains, they have managed to scrub off 80,000 stickers plastered inside the coaches and have made around 300 coaches sticker-free.
Unfortunately for these men, there is not a moment to lose. Barely a week after they finish cleaning a rake, commuters strike back with vengeance, spitting on and vandalising the coaches as if they have a score to settle with the railways.